Monday, June 26, 2017

Hey folks! Well, I squarely blame Ivor Evans from the Saturday Mornings blog for having planted some latent seed in my brain about Blood and Plunder some time ago (around the time of the first Kickstarter for it). At the time I saw some of the miniatures and would see posts about the game but I was firmly attempting to stay on track at the time and decided to actively bury my head in the sand and pretend I didn't see anything ...

Well ... that only worked for so long.

I've folded with the new Kickstarter and dove in head first ... and just in case you have not seen it, Firelock Games is running their second Blood and Plunder Kickstarter (no peace beyond the line) ...

I have also ordered the existing collection including all four factions and ships. One thing I really looking forward to doing is a nice Caribbean sea table for which I am drawing inspiration from the absolutely stunning demo table that Firelock Games uses ...

I'll be going for a similar effect that shows the shallow "reflections" from the water. I'm just trying to decide right now on how to build it out ... I could do 2x2 or 2x4 squares ... my ultimate goal is a 6x8 table ... with the last 2' or so being a shoreline with dock that goes into a Caribbean village with Spanish style buildings.

The four existing factions are below: English, French, Spanish and Unaligned. The new Kickstarter adds Dutch, Native Caribbeans, Pirates & Privateers, and European Land Forces.

In addition to the miniatures, the ships available are made of resin and having received my first batch of figures and ships I can say they are of extremely high quality ...

Frigate

Brigantine

Sloop

Longboat

The new Kickstarter adds even more ships, with the most awesome looking Galleon ... of which I'll be getting two!

I'm really excited about getting this game done and in play. I'll be doing a lot of posting as I make progress here. I've been busy (as usual) with work, but I'm dedicated to getting a lot of great progress done this summer.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Apologies for the lack of posts. I had my fill at KublaCon and then was met with some work travel and domestic projects. Getting back on track now though.

One of my favorite movies growing up was Red Dawn. The remake a few years ago was absolutely horrible ... but the original is a classic. Between that and Call of Duty Modern Warfare - in which the US gets invaded by Russia, I've always want to extend my "Russia Resurgent" project into North America.

Original Red Dawn ... the onlyRed Dawn I will acknowledge :-)

Considering all the Russian's we have laying around ... why not do a "modernize" Red Dawn type invasion scenario. My setting will be a small town in Washington state that gets hit by elements of a Russian division that have crossed the Bearing Straight and pushed through Alaska and down through Canada. This is good because I've always wanted an excuse to buy pre-assembled/painted Woodland Scenics O-Scale buildings. Specifically ...

All of these buildings are on order for me. I'll modernize them a bit and weather them as needed. I'll fill in the rest of the board with fur mats and roads as normal. The layout and scenario are not 100% in my head just yet ... but I'm sure I'll figure it out once all the cool toys show up!

In other news, my Vietnam figures have all finally shown up so I'll be sending those off to Artmaster Studio ASAP this week.

I'm also looking to host a game at some point before the July 4th weekend. Domestic duties and other stuff is making this a bit challenging ... but I'll figure something out. July 4th I have the whole week off so I'm looking forward to getting some gaming in during that week as well.